Online Wedding Planning Guide

There are those who say that I’m obsessive about notebooks. (You may soon be one of them.)

But I want you to hear me now when I say that the presence of a notebook in your wedding plans (I would say in any plans you have for your life—but that might sound obsessive) will be the difference between success and failure. You must have a Wedding Notebook.

In your Wedding Notebook, you’ll either write down (or print out, if you write things down on the computer) the things that you just realized (during the previous exercise) are essential to planning the wedding you really want.

Later, you’ll write down everything from the names on your guest list (that will require several drafts) to exactly what you want your florist to do in the hours prior to your ceremony.

Your Wedding Notebook will contain very personal information, but it will not be private. In fact, for you to plan the wedding that you really want, it’s essential that the notebook not be private. (Use a diary or journal if you need to write down private thoughts. That way you get to have multiple notebooks! )

Example Uses of Wedding Notebook

1. Use the notebook to provide your bridesmaids and other delegates with lists of their responsibilities.
2. Keep lists of important addresses and phone numbers.
3. Use the statements you’ve written in the notebook to communicate your wedding vision to your vendors (in fact, it doesn’t hurt to make copies of your vision description and hand them out to your vendors).
4. Compare different vendors of the same product, to choose the vendor (florist, caterer, etc.) who will be best for you.
5. Clip pictures from magazines that represent the effect that you want to achieve with your flowers or your dress.
6. Depending on the type of notebook you choose, you may file incoming information such as vendor contracts with your notebook.

Type of Wedding Notebook.

Keep a couple options in mind when selecting your Wedding Notebook.

1. When you’re removing pages and passing them out, it’s nice to have a small, wire-bound notebook with smooth perforations. This notebook type is also the easiest to keep on your person at all times. However, if you choose this notebook, you’ll have to supplement it with a folder in which you can insert pictures you tear out of bridal magazines, copies of formal letters you send out, and vendor contracts that come in.

2. A three-ring binder with some blank insert pages takes up more space in your briefcase but allows you to have one location where you write notes and file incoming paperwork. You can supplement it with all kinds of insertable pockets and magazine hangers, etc. You can do just about everything with a notebook these days, but it will be bulky. Decide whether you’d rather organize with one tool (a binder) or two (notebook and folder).

3. A lot of your wedding planning is best done on the computer. A spreadsheet program (like Microsoft Excel) lets you make a list of every person you’re thinking of inviting and then columns in which you can denote whether you’ve invited them, they’ve RSVP-ed, they’ve sent a gift, you’ve sent a "Thank You" note for the gift, etc. Tracking these kinds of things on a computer is great, but it doesn’t negate the need for a Wedding Notebook, in my opinion, because you can’t carry your computer around with you. You’ll need to print out the data that you’ve put in your computer files, and once you do that, you’ll need something to keep it safe and organized in: the Wedding Notebook.

Even if you have a personal organizer, which essentially is a computer you can carry around with you, I believe you still need a Notebook to store in-coming paper (contracts, magazine pages) and to allow you to hand out information to others. When personal organizers come with teeeeny tiny printers, they’ll be awfully close to ideal. Maybe magazines will be all digital by then, and you won’t need a Wedding Notebook at all. I’ll probably cry if that happens.

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